Hi, Im thinking of going to Cuba for a bit of diving.

Is it full of Americans.

Wheres the best diving.

regards

df

No Americans in Cuba, they are not allowed to travel there.

Plenty of Canadians.

Kind Regards
Stewart

Hello everyone I am new to this forum ..and have a few questions to ask ..Q1 do you think there is anything we can bring out to young children there .....clothes ..books....pens ect......
Q2 ...I know you need to bring english pounds and change them there ...but what about tipping what would you tip the room staff the bar staff and taxis .........thanks ................colleen

Cuban customs figures state that up to 180,000 Americans visit Cuba every year, most though are ex cubans visiting relatives, but they estimate that at least 30,000 Americans without ties to Cuba visit as tourists apparently they fly from Canada, Mexico or the Bahamas. An American friend travels there quite often on holiday he says he asks on arrival that his passport not be stamped so that US authorities don't know he has visited Cuba.
But the Island isn't overrun with Americans like a lot of the other Caribbean Islands.

dazer,

Hi, Im thinking of going to Cuba for a bit of diving.

Is it full of Americans.

Wheres the best diving.

If its just a bit of diving while on holiday, then there are a few dives worth doing depending on where you are in Cuba. If ifs a diving orientated holiday you want, then there are better places to visit in the Caribbean area. I've dived in the Holguin and Varadero as well as the Bay of Pigs (south coast) and its nothing special. The northern part of Cuba has suffered with heavy storms from the Atlantic so the reefs aren't in the best condition. Overfishing has taken its tall as well. If you just want to jump in and have a look around for a day or two, then Varadero is probably the best area to visit. Try the old Russian wrecks, quite interesting although its a relatively deep dive (up to 35m) so you'll need to be PADI Advanced or equivelent. If you want to spend a week diving, then there isn't really enough to see.

This is a video I made while diving off Playa Esmarelda with Sea Lovers dive centre in Guardalavaca (click on the thumbnail to play):



I've not edited my other video from Varadero / Bay of Pigs from last March as yet. Let me know if you want to take a look, might give me the push I need to do it. Shows how little there was to see when I've not editied the footage in early 12 months! Having said all that, it depends where you've been diving in the past and what you compare it to. Not much compares to St Lucia!

Darren

Hi, I am just wondering if any one could give me any advice on holidays to cuba. There are 5 of us thinking of going away, however I am having difficulties in finding hotels which will let us have 3 rooms rather than 2 rooms. I have found one hotel called Hotel Amigo Atlantic in Guardalavaca, however have read some quite poor reviews regarding this hotel and was just wondering if anyone could enlighten me?! I have done a bit of research but thought it would be extremely helpful to get advice from people who have been to Cuba. Thanks again!!

Welcome to HT!

I've merged your post with this topic which contains useful advice

If anyone would like to post a review for the Hotel Amigo Atlantico, please do so HERE.

Thanks.

Pippy

Hi Ahleyjhood,

Have you made it clear that you are willing to pay a single/sole use supplement for the third room? If you're not I can see why that might be a sticking point but compared to many destinations the single supplements are not always that expensive and that way you would get 3 rooms. How you sort out who get's a room to themselves and whether they would have to pay the whole of the supplement themselves is another matter of course :-)

SM

Can anyone tell me what the weight limits, both hand and checked baggage are with Cubana? I have looked on their website but couldn't find anything, I would like to take quite a lot of clothes/toiletries etc. as gifts but don't want to have to pay excess.

Hi Judith,

You'll find details here:

http://www.cubana.cu/html/ingles/informacion_e08.html

'Tropical class' is 30kgs and 'tourist' class is 20kgs. This is supposed to be the total limit including hand baggage (which isn't supposed to exceed 5kgs) and your ticket should actually state what your weight allowance is.

Each time I've travelled to Cuba with Cubana our tickets have clearly stated 30kgs but we were definitely in the 'economy' section of the plane! I usually check in 2 cases weighing approx 14 kgs each (the Cubana site English language option refers to checked in baggage as 'invoiced' baggage and hand baggage as 'uninvoiced') and I've never had my hand luggage weighed despite the fact that it probably weighed in excess of 5 kgs and would have definitely taken me above the 30kgs total anyway. As long as it doesn't exceed the standard dimensions ie H+D+W = 115cms (or approx 50x45x20 but could be 55x40x20) then they don't seem bothered about the actual weight.

We usually take an internal flight from Santiago to Havana to connect with our return flight home and officially the total weight limit for that leg should be 20kgs but I've never been challenged. I usually go out with more than I come back with because of taking kids clothes with me for people we know there but last time I was over the 30kgs on the return journey via Havana because I was bringing back percussion instruments with me but even so I wasn't charged excess baggage and I just checked two cases in as usual.

Cubana's idea of customer service is very laissez-faire and the in-flight service leaves a lot to be desired but the fact that they seem to always operate on the basis of doing what's the least hassle for them means that they take a similarly laid back attitude to weight regulations etc in my experience!

SM

PS In the spirit of the above if you phrase any on-board request in 'Let me make it easier for you' terms you're more likely to have it acceded to! Ask for a beer too frequently and they'll huff and puff - ask for a 4pack on the grounds that 'I won't have to disturb you so frequently' will mean it will be given to you with alacrity! Likewise a request for a 2litre bottle of water will always be responded to more quickly than a request for a glass!

SMa Many Thanks
Everytime I used the Cubana site my computer jammed, so I gave up in the end.
Haven't got my tickets yet but I wanted to sort a lot of stuff out, I don't need many clothes for myself so I will be returning with a pretty much empty case.
Have travelled a few times with Air India and some very ropey internal Chinese Airline companies in the late 80's those experiences have left me without great expectations . As long as I get there!!!
I'm looking forward to finally getting to Cuba, had booked a trip almost 10 years ago but had to cancel at the last minute because of my Dad's serious illness. It's taken me this long to (hopefully)get there.
.

We went to Cuba last year in August and the weather was topsy turvy to be totally honest, one day sunny and warm the next over cast, then rain the sun we had one good week and one bad week and the temperature was around 82 deg max but the humidity was more. We came back with a tan but not like the tan we get in the Dom Rep at the same time of year.

I am going to Cuba next month so the weather will hopefully be a bit more stable, though as long as there isn't torrential rain showers every day i'm not really bothered as it's a long time since I was interested in getting a tan. I will be touring from east to west, practising my very limited Spanish and getting a feel for the country and it's people. Can't wait.

When we arrived we found that they'd delayed the floor show starting until we did get there and had plied the 200 Venuzuelian Navy officers, who were there on a courtesy visit whilst training in Cuba, with rum to keep them happy until we did. After the floor show the stage was opened up as a dance floor and they where literally queuing up to dance with the greatly outnumbered women. Imagine, 200 handsome latino officers in their best No 1 tropical whites and only about 40 women max in the place! We were danced off our feet! Rollover Richard Gere!

I remember that night, that was one of my highlights of santiago. wouldn't go back to tropicana though.

If you're the 'en' I think you are no wonder you remember it! How are you doing? Going to the reunion in Pontin's in April by any chance? Amanda, Roger, Di and I are!

SM

I've visited Cuba twice in the last two years - the first time was only for 5 days, but I liked what I saw so much that I went back again for 12 days, with 3 nights in Havana.
As far as taking things for the Cubans - they are especially in need of soap, pens and crayons for the kids, and any lipsticks and make-up you no longer want or like will also be well recieved. Clothing is also expensive for them on their meagre earnings, as well as shoes. I gave a waitress in our hotel in Varadero a t shirt dress which had got too small for me, and she thanked me every day afterwards.
Cubans only earn about 20$US a month, and do not have access to many things that we take for granted.

I came back 2 weeks ago from my holiday in Cuba. Havana was as fantastic as always. I went to the Tropicana there and can honestly said it is totally different to the one in Santiago. It is a lot more professional and entertaining. In Santiago I felt it was staged for the tourists, but no so in Havana and although expensive I would go back if I'm lucky enough to go back to Havana again.Highlight for me was going to El Bodeguita Del Medio for my mojito whilst listening to a live son band. We were also lucky enough to do the city tour in a 1950's American car. Had to pre-book this with Thomas Cook beofre we went and would certainly recommend anyone travelling with them to do this as some friends went on the standard tour and did not like it. We had a driver and tour guide all to ourselves and were able to ask anything we wanted.
The second part of our holiday was to Cayo Coco which was nice, but not a place I would go back to. The only "residents" on the whole island are the tourists, the staff are bussed in daily. There are no shops or bars other than those in the hotels and so you can't really mingle with Cubans which I missed. Very pretty, but wished we could have spent more time in Havana. Also maybe this is just Thomas Cook, but if you wanted to go swimming with dolphins, the only way to do this was to go on an expensive 2 day trip which took in other sights as well but was a lot of money, so wasn't able to do it this time.
I've tried to book for Varadero 3 times now and got different resorts each time. Maybe I'll be 4th time lucky and get there soon

Hi

Am going to Paradisus Rio De Oro in Guardalavaca in May - have never been to Cuba before. Have read some reviews that say some people book their entire restaurant plans ahead of their trip. Has anyone been to this hotel and found problems getting places to eat as they have all been booked up in advance?

Patsy1408,

There's a thread dedicated to the PDRO, click here. You'll find all there is to know about the hotel on that thread and how to pre-book the restaurants. I stayed there a couple of years ago. It's a fabulous hotel but it is recommended to book the restaurants early as they do get booked up really quickly. Having said that, the main buffet restaurant is excellent as well, food quality is very high. You can't go wrong.

Have a fab time,

Darren